CW Sweeps East in Dramatic District Finale

The Creek Wood basketball teams welcomed East Hickman to the hill on Highway 47 Tuesday night for a pair of important wins. The home side won both game, in very different ways and with very different results.

The Lady Red Hawks had lost to East earlier in the year, and split with Lewis County. The Lady Eagles upset Lewis County last week, meaning that the winner of Tuesday night’s game would wind up in a first-place tie with the Lady Panthers. Creek Wood played well early in a low scoring affair, but Olivia Martin went off for 7 points in a 10-4 Lady Eagle second quarter that put East Hickman up 13-12 at the half. Elayna Gass buried 3 longballs in the third as Creek Wood managed foul trouble and took the frame 15-12. Up 27-25 to start the fourth, the Lady Red Hawks were able to grind out a huge win, due in part to free throw shooting; Creek Wood hit 10 foul shots in the 13-5 fourth, and held on for a 40-30 win.

Alli Crumpler led the way for East with 12 points while Chloee Adams had 9 and Martin 7. Gass and Sam Kilian each had 12 to lead Creek Wood, while Lydia Edmondson had 9 points including 6 fourth-quarter free throws.

The boys’ game followed a similar progression, but got even tighter down the stretch. Coulter Dotson and Garrett Dolinich each hit a three in the first quarter and Aaron Daniel hit 2 threes as Creek Wood pulled out to an 18-15 lead at the end of the first. Ethan Keller had 10 for the Eagles in the opening frame.

East Hickman took the second 17-9 as Kiyon Sowell went off for 8 points in the paint, and a 12-8 Eagle third grew a 32-27 halftime lead to 44-35 after three. Creek Wood trailed by 11 points in the contest, but the Red Hawks live and die by the three–and in the fourth, they soared again. Daniel, Dallas Hall, and Micah Westerman struck from outside, but it was a basket-and-one by Dotson going out of bounds with 1:25 left that put the Red Hawks up again, 53-52. Sowell answered back with a pair of free throws to give East the lead back 54-53, but Dotson had one more trick up his sleeve. He leaned into two defenders as he pulled up for a possible game-winning three and drew the foul with 1.6 seconds left. He hit 2-of-3 to give Creek Wood a 55-54 lead, but the Red Hawks had to get physical defending a length-of-the-floor set play, a baseball pass to the post on the other end to try and steal the win. CWHS knocked the posts out of the lane and the pass skipped out of bounds without a foul, as the home side held on for a big win.

Dotson led the way with a team-best 16 points, 3 threes, a basket-and-one and the game winner. Westerman had 10 points and 2 threes while Daniel had 9 points on 3 threes. Ethan Keller led East with 19 points and 3 threes, while Sowell had 11 points and Cole Keller 10.

Creek Wood hosts Sycamore for a makeup game Thursday night on WDKN and 101.5 The One FM. That concludes the regular season, and sends Creek Wood to the District Tournament next week.